Deutsch's goal in her biography of Whitman is to connect the important incidents of his life to the formation of his creative intelligence in order to explain how the poet acquired and developed his abilities as a writer. Opening the book with a description of his early life on a Long Island farm close to the sea, Deutsch introduces the members of Whitman's family as distinctive characters, each of whom affects the young boy in a crucial way. His maternal grandmother is a sea captain's daughter who likes to tell stories of seafaring men and their adventures; a great-grandmother (who died before he was born) still lives in family legends as a strong, independent woman; and his paternal grandmother is a Quaker who may have sparked Whitman's interest in that gentle, tolerant religion.

Whitman's father is a carpenter, large and rough-hewn, quick-tempered and hard-working...